fifteen minute modeller

fighting procrastination fifteen minutes at a time

Tag: z scale

Test track #5

11th June 2018 / / 0 Comments

My posts are like buses at the moment, nothing for ages and then loads of them. Almost there and the circle is complete. I cheated and decided not to bus wire it as I thought it was overkill and just wanted to get the track running so as to get all the Z locos tested and ready to sell off. I’m still a little sentimental and nostalgic about the Swiss stuff but really want to concentrate on being able to purchase the new and pending Kato stock for my layout that I shall be building. But in building this dual gauge it does give me the seed of and idea for a true metre gauge/standard gauge layout someday in the future.

and finally just a glimpse at a full circumnavigation of said circle via the wonders of a 9v battery. Can I hear distant rumbles of thunder?

The very last thing to do is find a suitable rheostat switch to place in one corner.

Until next time..

Test track build #4

3rd June 2018 / / 0 Comments

The circle is now complete with both rails in place and glued down using just simple PVA glue with bluetack to hold the ends in place. I was surprised at how quickly it cured as I thought I was in for a lengthy wait before I could get on with the next section. I didn’t mark out the circle fully and completed the curves by site with one corner flattened out a bit but I wasn’t bothered about the accuracy with this only being a test track. One mistake I made was forgetting to wash off the inner rails flux in the excitement of moment, but I’ll remedy that with a soft wire brush and a damp cloth. I probably don’t need to do it but I will go round with a file and ease out any bumps though there are very few luckily. I amaze myself that it turned out so we after such a long absence of any kind of modelling. However if a jobs worth doing etc…

The next task is to drill holes in the board for feeder wires, hot glue these wires, and then terminate at a switch that can select between analogue or DCC control. I need to get this switch and a bunch of electrical connectors so I guess that means a trip to the model shop, what hardship!

Lastly a shot of three different scales on one piece of track. The Z stuff will soon disappear and who knows what might happen to the 009 loco. I also need to look into some better lighting for taking pictures and for seeing the workbench. I also find myself wanting one of the those bench mounted magnifying glasses or maybe just a new set of normal ones from Poundland. In fact there

Until next time..

Test track build #3

1st June 2018 / / 0 Comments

With having a couple of days off with other stuff going on today saw the completion of the four track panels bar a bit of fettling to get the rails to match up at the joins and the inner 6.5mm track fixing down I made a start on that too. I had considered using some road bed but felt it was a waste of time as this is only going to be used occasionally.

First rail laid down for Z tester. I didn’t bother with gauges and elected to use a cheap set of digital calipers to measure the gap holding rail in place by the age old method of fingers remembering to remove them just before it got to burning point. Tomorrow I’ll have all inner rails added and plan to glue down the track.

Till next time..

Test track build #2

29th May 2018 / / 0 Comments

Ok it took me slightly longer than 15 mins but keeping the momentum going. I have moved on from the first iteration and now building the ‘proper’ track in sections to make it manageable and also allow for some expansion. I’m building it this way as I found that from the previous straight piece it was easier to build the outer rails and then cut the isolation gap before attaching the inner rail for Z track.

Once I was happy with the alignment, well almost happy as it’s a little bit of a squeeze to get it to align I went and washed off with washing up liquid and an old toothbrush to get rid of any flux residue. Just need to make the last two panels of track before I can glue down and electrify.

Ironing out the rails

28th May 2018 / / 0 Comments

Arrgghhh, I started out last night writing this post almost getting to end when virtually all my hard thought prose were wiped off the face of the planet. When will I ever learn as this is not the first time I have been stung this way and thinking that writing the post in the WordPress app on my mobile device is a good idea. So from now on these posts will be hand crafted away from the web and then pasted in at the last moment. In this day and age I’m surprised that this still can happen and that web coders can’t have a back button on the WordPress app but that’s going way off topic.

Ok, so finally something to show for effort and not just a blathering post about thoughts and plans, and what magazines I have been buying. As the observant of you will notice yes this is a bit of dual gauge track, but don’t look too closely at the soldering! It’s been some time since I last picked up the iron in anger and had to go through all the faff of digging out all the required bits and pieces such as solder and flux etc and then remember what temps I needed to set it at. That being said I have finally managed to light a bonfire under the mojo and get cracking with project 1 here at 15minutemodeller headquarters. Also in this pic is the baseboard knocked up to start this project off. For once no lengthy planning sessions were carried out in order to ascertain the optimum design, no 3D mockups to waste some more time creating cutting lists that would have made the builders of the Cutty Sark blush. No this was literally two lumps of batten chopped up and a chunk of ply grabbed from the wood pile and screwed and glued together in a blink of an eye. Unheard of? Yes! It’s certainly not beautiful but certainly functional if just a bit on the heavy side but then again I wasn’t going for experimental lightweight forms.

Now the reason for this test track is two fold; firstly to act as a 9 millimetre-ish and I say this as I plan to be able to use it for both my Kato stuff and also for some future 2mmFS plans as they can share the same gauge with no problems it’s only when switches are introduced that it becomes a bit sketchy. Yes I Know I said I was forsaking all other distractions but the reality is that I know I am never going to be able to limit myself to just one thing and also my plans for 15minutemodeller have changed to allow for my inveterate rubber gauge tendencies and hopefully more will be revealed over time.

Then the reason for the second and narrower gauge is to accommodate the testing my collection of both American and Swiss Z scale that I have now finally decided to liquidate. In order to put the locos on a well know auction site I need to check to see if there running ok as it is an not insignificant amount of time since I last took them out of there boxes and ran them. Plonking and extra rail on the test track to facilitate this is no real extra effort and who knows whether it might be of use in the future. Just after building the board rummaging through the boxes I uncovered the rolling road I brought many moons ago, in fact not just one set but two, jeez that was a time of way too much money and little sense although in this case it paid off as going forward I will be using these to run locos in, but then there is something relaxing about watching a train trundling around a track. We’ll see how long the test track survives after the locos it’s built for have left the building.

Just as a side note one can build hand laidback with nothing but a set of callipers either manual of digital and you don’t need fancy brass gauges in order to build something operational, points/switches may be a little more challenging but not impossible. So to get the very rusty soldering muscles going I built a very small section of straight dual gauge from a recycled point I made for another project years ago, to test out the workflow needed to build the full circle and I’m glad I did it as it point out some failings in my thinking about how I was going to put things together.

It’s great to smell the aroma of 60/40 again and now that I have the platform to build on I just need to get some metal down.

Until next time..

Project 6: Z Scale Micro and Test Track

28th November 2013 / / 0 Comments

zscalePlan5

Whilst starting to sort through all my rail related box that have come back from storage I came across my Z scale items. I guess it was 10 years ago I started collect this and it was primarily Swiss at that time. I started collect the 460’s as I like the logos on them and then went on to get some Re6/6 freight locos in order to have a bit of diversity. Like a lot of my modelling it started off in a blaze of glory and then fizzled out all to quickly. Having collected all these items I would seem rude not to use them and that’s where P6 comes in.

I have thought that in order to keep things simple I would have a loop that then expanded into a triple deck ascending loops mimicking the Gotthard Route. I thought that watching the trains run up and down the hills would be relaxing and similar to the real route. The loop would tighten towards the top and then drop down within the inner loop. Gradients and distances need to be checked as I realise that the height needed between each layer maybe more that first envisioned.

Firstly I am going to build a test track as I plan to lay the rails using pcb and code 30 from the 2mmSA, but might make this code 4o depending on the wheels on the Maerklin stock. Originally I had planned to have only plain track but have been considering a very small station at the bottom of the valley which would have a couple of switches off it for mainly logging and maybe a freight depot.

Make out of foam board this will be light but strong to stop the track flexing and is primarily going to be a test bed for checking stock through points, coupler connections and also shunting ability 🙂 The crossing will be fun to make as this will be first time I have attempted anything such. More to follow tomorrow hopefully..

Screen Shot 2013-11-28 at 17.07.58

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